RobTheBuilder wrote:
@darkmorgado the people you wrote about looking back at the rtd era with crazy nostalgia glasses

Ah ok, I thought it was an insult directed at me!

It's bizarre though, how many people who derided Dr Who during his tenure who now scream that Moffat is "ruining" the series. Especially considering Moffat wrote a hell of a lot of the RTD era episodes.

It's the same with any fanbase in any medium. They all whine that they want something different, then when you give them something different they whine that you've changed things. There's no pleasing idiots like that.

darkmorgado wrote:
It would be more accurate to say that the Borg are like the Cybermen.

I'm not convinced - adapting to weapons, collective conciousness and the new style of almost viral assimilation are very Borg, certainly more Borg than the Cybermen have even been before. Not that it's a bad thing, and the Borg certainly took their origins from something similar to the Cybermen. But as far as abilities go, the Cybermen of Nightmare in Silver do seem to have a few new Borg-like characteristics.

Blerk wrote:
I think my major problem with the Cybers is they still don't seem to DO anything. They just sort of wander around and stand to attention a lot. And given that first one was so fast, why did the others take so long getting into the castle?

I just had a thought about this. I don't think this was given as a reason but it would make sense if it was because it had more processing power as they were only powering the one cyberman at that time. It would be a good way of being able to make 1 cyberman almost as much of a threat as 5 million anyway.

darkmorgado wrote:
It would be more accurate to say that the Borg are like the Cybermen.

I'm not convinced - adapting to weapons, collective conciousness and the new style of almost viral assimilation are very Borg, certainly more Borg than the Cybermen have even been before. Not that it's a bad thing, and the Borg certainly took their origins from something similar to the Cybermen. But as far as abilities go, the Cybermen of Nightmare in Silver do seem to have a few new Borg-like characteristics.

They've assimilated like that since the 80's - hence the line this week "not even cybermats anymore, now you're cybermites"

I see where you're coming from (the "upgrade in progress" thing was very much like Borg adaptive tech), but to be honest Borg and Cybermen are pretty distinct. Even in NiS (when has a Borg ever moved at super-speed?)

The way I see it, the Borg are just Trek's version of zombies - slow moving and only a real threat in numbers. Plus they're not sentient in the traditional sense. The Cybermen are.

Personally I love Doctor Who under Moffet, I was just saying to my Dad that under RTD I felt like I was always having to make allowances for cringe inducing scenes. I did prefer S7a to S7b but I think its got stronger as it gone on. So yeah I'm a content fan ATM

Using the sonic screwdriver as magical maguffin certainly doesn't fucking help in that regard. The old series barely gave the damn thing a look-in, now it seems to get pulled out in every single scene.

darkmorgado wrote:
It's the same with any fanbase in any medium. They all whine that they want something different, then when you give them something different they whine that you've changed things. There's no pleasing idiots like that.

This nonsense is a far too common of an opinion. The people whinging about one, are rarely the same people whinging about the other.

Rubbish. You see it all the time. People moan about DLC then shell out 12 quid a time for map packs, moan about COD but buy every installment, whinge about Eastenders but watch it avidly every episode, complain about piracy but think nothing of downloading music, etc.

Indeed, for a screwdriver it's remarkably versatile. Even back in the day they rarely used it for anything other than breaking stuff, now it seems to serve whatever purpose it needs to in order to get them out of the situation.

I think it's the 'scanning stuff' function that narks me the most. It doesn't even have a display!

Spectral wrote:
@Blerk Silly or not it has said in past eps it has a telepathic interface. point and think.

I guess that's the only thing that makes any sense. And I guess I can accept that given that he also has the psychic business card.

In theory I guess the screwdriver serves the same purpose as the Star Trek: TNG 'particle' - it's a convenient way to resolve a problem within the last ten minutes of a 43 minute show. I still wish the Doctor could outsmart more of the baddies than just rely on a magic stick and/or "the power of love" though.

The thing that really irritated me about it this episode is that it was completely redundant. He could have just slapped himself in the face with the glove and that'd could have worked. Using the screwdriver to "boost" it was unnecessary.

It's almost as if they're using it on purpose just to drive up merch sales of toy sonic screwdrivers or something.

Think it was mentioned in the Let's Kill Hitler episode that it now has a psychic interface. Which means it will do whatever he's thinking it to do. It's a bit of a con to be honest as it's now the get out for almost every episode as it can do whatever he wants it to. It's less about this amazing ancient being with super intelligence and how he can figure his way out of situations to "wacky man with a magic stick".

It's all becoming rather tiresome to be honest. Can we not have at least one episode away from men in rubber suits / silly masks as well????